CORAL SPRINGS The Panthers have decided to send top draft pick Jonathan Huberdeau back to juniors to gain some strength, while opting to open the season with last year’s top pick, defensemen Erik Gudbranson.
While a contract impasse played a major part in the decision to give Gudbranson, then 18, another stint with his junior team in Kingston, Ontario last year, the Huberdeau move was mostly about his need to physically mature to better withstand the rigors of professional hockey.
“It was really tempting,’’ said Panthers GM Dale Tallon Monday of sending Huberdeau back to the Saint John Seadogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League despite the 18 year old tying for the league lead with three power-play goals this preseason.
“You have to make the decision that’s best for the long term, for the kid’s benefit and for our benefit. He’s 173 pounds, and I think in his heart, too, he knows he needs to get stronger. The discussion with him, his family, his agent on a regular basis the last week or so you can tell there’s a vulnerability there on the size, but we know we didn’t mess up in the draft, that’s for sure.’’
Huberdeau took the decision well.
“It was a great experience to be here. I learned a lot of things on the ice with all the veterans. I can’t be disappointed,’’ Huberdeau said. “I’ll have a good season in junior and I’m excited to go there and see the boys.
“It’s just precaution. I’m not big and don’t want to get hurt this year. It’s a marathon not a sprint, better to be here next year healthy and bigger.
“For sure in the corner it’s hard when they’re 220, the defensemen are a lot bigger … without anything to protect me. [I don’t have] the big muscles like the other guys.’’
Both Tallon and Huberdeau that he shouldn’t bulk up too much, just about 7-10 pounds of muscle to his 6-1 frame because he’s a, “skill guy.’’
“He made that an extremely tough decision for us with both his maturity as a person and his play,’’ Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. “He still has some physical maturing to do and that’s better suited at the junior level.’’
As for the 6-4, 225-pound Gudbranson, coach Kevin Dineen and Tallon said that he has done enough to prove that he is ready for the NHL. Gudbranson, who like Huberdeau was the third overall pick, signed his entry-level contract in July, but he could still be sent down to juniors after a nine-game audition without having the contract start until next year.
“We’ll give him a shot. He’s had a good finish to the camp,’’ Tallon said. “He certainly doesn’t look out of place. He’s big, he’s strong and he’s willing.
“Everybody’s on audition. We can’t be satisfied. Every game is an audition and that’s for 22 guys, not just one.’’

Comments (2 Comments)

In my opinion, this is one of the very best written Panther articles that I have ever read. You did a great job getting all aspects of the decisions from everyone involved. And you showed the true class of everyone involved as well.

You presented everyone as truly wanting to do what is right for the organization in the long term.

I think that in your article you showed that everyone truly wants the Panthers to succeed.

I also feel that when you were critical of the Panthers in earlier postings that you were correct for all of the right reasons.

Believe me, I am not starting a fan club for you, but I recognize that your work ethic is truly honest.

HARVEY FIALKOV, a tennis-playing sportswriter who grew up in Long Island following the dynastic Islanders, is the new Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel and looking forward to writing about the best professional sports team in Broward County.